Inverter/Shore Power Hack For Any Camper - Mod

Oinfront

I have a 2019 Tab 400 that I’ve done some good mods on. We have the non boondock model and it did not come with an inverter. I upgraded the battery system to a 280 amp hr (3500 watt hr) LiFePo a few years ago.

We have no solar on the roof but I do have a 200 watt solar suitcase that I can pull out if needed. Although this 280amp battery does us well and can get us through a 4-5 day trip with ease. If we need air con we always get a site with electric. And we don’t really miss not having 120v when we are boondocking.

I have thought many times throughout the years of installing an inverter but just never did it.

If you follow up on portable power stations, you know that that tech is getting very affordable during sales. I purchased an Anker Solix C2000 gen 2 for just a bit over $700. This power station has a 2048 watt hr battery, can kick out 2400 watts of 120v and can peak at 4000 watts. The great thing is it has a 30amp plug! And is very compact.

I wanted to use this as my inverter and extra battery power when needed for my tab400. My 2019 has a large storage area under the bed and the power station can fit under the bed no problem. I modded the camper to use this power station as a shore power alternative when boon docking.

I installed a female 30 amp shore power outlet under my bed.

Then installed an automatic transfer switch under the bed where the plumbing is. The transfer switch will automatically switch to either the outside shore power plug or the inside outlet that I installed depending on which one is supplying power to it.

I made a cable with 2 male 30 amp plugs on both sides

So now I can put my power station under the bed, plug it into the outlet and when I turn it on, the transfer switch does its thing and then I am powering my camper with the power station.

It powers everything even the AC! With the AC running and nothing else, it pulls around 1100 watts. When it is Idling it is only 23 watts!

And there is still plenty of power to spare. I can run the camper just on the power station or I can turn on the camper battery and it will charge it. Now the AC will eat up the power very quickly. So it really would be used for that. But if I need to cool the camper for a few minutes it’s nice to know I can.

Added benefits… if it gets depleted, I can take it out and go charge it somewhere very quickly and then plug it back in to the camper. It’s not tied to the camper. I can take it out, use it somewhere else, use it at home if there is a power outage. It’s inside the camper under the bed so theft is not a worry.

I really believe this is a primo set up. And can work in any camper!

Thought I’d share!

ckjs

Nice - the costs of these have dropped a lot. I have one suggestion for others doing this:

Avoid the use of a cord with pronged plugs at both ends (aka a suicide cord) by installing a male flange-mount receptacle for the under-the-bed connection, e.g. something like:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/ac-connectors/ASINL530P-FC/21344063

This is similar to the standard shore power port outside. You'd use a more normal 30A RV extension cord (plug at one end, socket at the other) to connect the power station to the T@b.

Suicide cords are much more prone to accidental contact with live high voltage prongs. Both ends of the cord stick out, and either end can be live. With a standard RV cord, if you plug in the pronged end in first, you're much less likely to zap yourself.

Oinfront

@ckjs that is correct. I may change that in the future. Def need to be 100% both ends are plugged in before turning power station.